Four men have been banned from the venue as part of Operation Goliath, while Leicestershire County Council has said it will refuse to issue licences for any children needing them to perform there.

Two of those men excluded have been arrested and released on conditional bail.

The investigation began in October last year, with a number of unannounced visits to the theatre taking place.

While police are remaining tight-lipped about the number of victims who have come forward, they say they want to speak to anyone who believes they were targeted - no matter their age at the time or how long ago it was.

Detective Inspector Richard Hiom, who is in charge of Operation Goliath, said: “This is an appeal for any victims to come forward. But also if you’re not a victim and have any intelligence about the theatre, we would like to hear from you.

“This is a holistic investigation and I do not want to exclude anyone.

“We wouldn’t put this appeal out if we didn’t think there were more victims.”

Concordia Theatre

Search warrants have been executed at four premises - one of those was the theatre itself.

Lesley Hagger, director for children and family services at Leicestershire County Council, said: “We want to reassure parents that safeguarding children is a priority. This includes ensuring that it’s appropriate for people to work in positions of trust with children and we’re working closely with the police and other partners on this investigation.

“Given the current circumstances, it would not be appropriate for us to issue licences for children to take part in forthcoming productions.”

Child performers of compulsory school age are required to be licensed if they take part in four performances or more in any six month period.

Children making fewer appearances than this do not need to be licensed although dancers involved in part of a production do need a letter of exemption from the council.

The latest measure will not affect every child due to appear onstage at the Concordia in the coming months and has not been back-dated.

It means children who have already been licensed to appear will be able to do so.

A spokesman for the Concordia Theatre said: “We are co-operating fully with the authorities. It would be inappropriate for us to say more at this stage.”

If young people themselves do not want to talk to the police about what has happened but still need help or support from someone they can talk to confidentially by ringing ChildLine.

This is a 24 hours a day service and can be contacted by chat and email at www.childline.org.uk or on 0800 1111.

If parents or another adult would like to speak to someone about this they can contact the NSPCC for advice and support by calling 0808 800 5000, texting 88858, emailing help@nspcc.org.uk or going to www.nspcc.org.uk/helpline. They can choose to remain anonymous when doing so and again it is a 24 hour service.

Leicestershire Police are appealing for any victims of crime connected to the theatre to contact them on 101 quoting Operation Goliath.

For the full story and more details, see this week's Hinckley Times (February 6).